Theses and Dissertations
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Item Community Structure of Dung Beetles in Kailash Sacred Landscape, Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand, India(wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2020) Chauhan, Mona; Uniyal, V.P.; Chandra, KailashDue to the recent wave of urbanization, mountain areas are being transferred into urban and agriculture land at alarming rates. The Kailash Sacred Landscape, Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand, India is highly vulnerable due to fragmentation and urbanization, including increased anthropogenic disturbance, reduced area, loss of habitats, invasion of new species and ecological transformations. Therefore, it is important to document the status of biodiversity prevailing in these areas to identify the level of biodiversity still left in forest fragments. No records exist about the community structure of dung beetles in the landscape and hence we lack crucial historical documentation of the natural communities in landscape which would remain as an important source of information for measuring species extinctions in the area. This study provides basic inventory and diversity pattern of dung beetles from the undiscovered area of the Kailash Sacred Landscape, Pithoragarh, India. This study also suggested bioindicator based ecological monitoring and excellent insight for future conservation and management planning which will help the managers to set priority areas for habitat improvement or restrict areas to deteriorate any further. The study area is Kailash Sacred Landscape (KSL), Pithoragarh, India part exhibits great variability and heterogeneity in altitude and topography, due to this ecosystems of this region vary widely from subtropical to temperate, alpine, and cold high altitude desert types. Similarly, the landscape harbors a high diversity of flora and fauna of both regional and global significance.Item Bird Community of Andaman Islands with Emphasis on Human Associated and Introduced Birds(SACON, 2013) Rajan, P.; Pramod, P.Andaman and Nicobar Islands are very rich in bird diversity and hence have high importance in conservation planning. Both in species endemism and species diversity these islands are notable. Andaman and Nicobar Islands is also a significant place in India which is exposed to very high human mediated species introduction. These introduced species can have serious effects on the native biodiversity and it can be the agent for the breakdown of native species equilibrium. On the background of this context, this study was undertaken to examine the bird species composition of Andaman Islands especially on human influenced areas and the role of introduced birds among the avifauna of these Islands. The study was carried out in nine inhabited islands in the Andaman group and later these nine study sites were clubbed into five groups for easy analysis. The study emphasis on introduced birds and their impacts on native ecosystem especially on Islands. Both secondary and primary data collection methods are employed in the study. All the published information on distribution of birds in Andaman Islands were collated synthesized and analyzed to elucidate the characteristics of Andaman Bird fauna. Systematically 221 transect counts of birds from nine human inhabited islands which can be classified into 6 habitats were collected. These collected field observation data on birds were analyzed with special emphasis on the introduced birds.Item Bird communities and their distribution pattern along the elevation gradient of Teesta Valley, Sikkim(SACON, 2008) Acharya, Bhoj Kumar; Vijayan, LalithaStudies on ecology of local communities are important for understanding environmental problems and planning area-based conservation management (Simberloff, 2004). Community composition, species richness and diversity of birds in five different elevation zones of Teesta valley, Sikkim were studied from June 2003 to March 2006 using point count sampling method. A total of 329 species of birds (299 during regular quantitative sampling and 30 during. opportunistic observations) belonging to 44 families was recorded in the Teesta valley during the study period. The study shows that Teesta valley harbors high diversity and abundance of birds. Broadleaved vegetation, situated at mid-elevation region, is the most diverse zone as compared to tropical, coniferous or alpine vegetation. Species accumulation curves based on number of point counts indicated that most of the species were detected in all the zones. Species richness (observed and estimated) was the maximum in zone II, whereas density, abundance and diversity were the maximum in zone iii. The species-abundance pattern of birds followed truncated log-normal distribution for total bird population as well as for all the zones except zone II which did not fit to any models. Bird data showed the presence of both types of species, exclusive (restricted to one elevation zone) and generalists (present in two or more zones), in the Teesta valley. Out of the total species observed (329), 156 (47.4%) were exclusively recorded in one specific elevation zone. Only three species, namely Blue Whistling Thrush, Greenish Warbler and White-capped Water Redstart occurred in all the five zones.Item Bird community structure along the altitudinal gradient in Silent Valley National Park, Western Ghats, India(SACON, 2008) Anoop Das, K.S.; Vijayan, LalithaMy research on bird community along the altitudinal-habitat gradients and their nest-site partitioning across habitats in Silent Valley National Park (SYNP) has portrayed several patterns. The work has explored some aspects of the processes which accounted for the patterns of variations in the community structure of birds in a pristine forest representative of the post Miocene and Pleistocene uplifted Western Ghats of India. In particular, the study addressed how altitude affected the distribution of birds and how the breeding birds shared their resources. The present study resulted in 5253 birds of 108 species, including 14 endemic species, from the 2314 point counts conducted in six habitats. The total number of species observed was 145 including opportunistic observations. Bird community structure of various habitats in corresponding altitudes varied significantly in terms of composition, abundance and diversity. The maximum species (59.2%) and individuals (27.2%) were in evergreen forest habitat and minimum in BLHF (22.8 % and 5.73% respectively). Shola habitats located at higher altitudes in the study area possessed higher species richness than mid-elevation broad leaved hill forest, which occurs within the altitudinal range of 1500- 1700 m. BLHF could be considered as a transitional zone between evergreen and shola forest. The significant difference in tree species richness of BLHF with adjacent EG and SHOLA habitats partly explain the reduction in number of bird species in this transitional zone.Item Soil Nematode community structure along elevational Gradient in Bhagirathi Basin, Uttarakhand - A Morphological and Molecular approach.(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2021) Kashyap, Priyanka; Uniyal, V.P.Gangotri National Park (GNP) is a protected area and has fewer human disturbances, allowing soil nematodes to diversify. However, it has harsh climatic conditions at high altitudes, which may hinder the nematode community structure. Systematic study of the soil inhabiting nematodes associated with forest vegetation of Gangotri National Park is discussed in this thesis. A compiled inventory of the soil nematode genera recorded from GNP during this study has also been provided in this thesis. A total of 62 nematode genera and fifteen species were identified from high altitude region of GNP. vegetation type is a significant factor for soil nematode diversity as every vegetation type has a different local environment and physicochemical properties that affect the soil biota, specifically soil nematodes being present at various trophic levels in the soil food web. Among the various vegetation types in Gangotri National Park's high-altitude areas, there are substantial differences in the taxonomic composition, the energy flow channels, and nematode community structures, which provide actual examples for understanding the role of soil nematodes in key soil ecological processes in the region. This study is a pioneer study in the region evaluating the effect of vegetation type on soil nematode diversity therefore, more similar studies are required to comprehend the relationship between nematode diversity and soil ecosystems of high altitude vegetations.Item Systematics and diversity of spiders (Araneae) in Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2011) Quasin, Shazia; Uniyal, V.P.The present study was carried out in Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (NDBR), Uttarakhand, India, which is located in the northern part of the Western Himalaya in India, one of the important sites of wilderness and biodiversity in the Himalayan region. This study was selected for its conservation value, representation of biome and little existing information. The present study was conducted from January 2008 to July 2011. The study aimed to investigate the spider community structure along the altitudinal gradient and the influence of habitat covariates like vegetation types, ph, litter depth, humidity and temperature, on spider assemblages in the intricate landscape of the NDBR. The pattern of species diversity was explored using a set of standard methods and ecological indices. This study obtained the first comprehensive representation of the spider fauna in NDBR, which would help in assessing the status of spider diversity in the region keeping in mind its conservational value. This study revealed the relative importance of diverse habitat types on diversity and composition of spider assemblages in NDBR.Item Effect of Grazing on the Community Structure and Functional Diversity of Grazing Lawns in Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2021) Malagi, Aaroha; Adhikari, B.S.; Page, Navendu V.; Ramesh, K.Understanding the effects of grazing (by both livestock and wild ungulates) on grasslands is paramount to come up with more robust managerial actions to conserve, and increase the ecosystem function of these valuable ecosystems. In the current study, we investigate the effects of grazing on a highly productive, mesic grassland ecosystem, viz. grazing lawn in Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu, India. We examined how species richness and composition of a grassland patch change across a grazing gradient by carrying out plot-based vegetation sampling in the grazing lawns of Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve. We also looked at how trait composition and functional diversity changed across the grazing gradient, to better understand the plant functional response and resilience of the grazing lawn complex. We used a Linear Mixed Effect Model (LMM) to investigate the impact of grazing intensity on species richness, and a Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) to look at the differences in species composition between different grazing treatments. Functional composition and diversity were measured using Lavorel and Villeger’s index in the ‘FD’ package of R (4.0.2). We found that grazing lawns were minimally affected by grazing intensity in terms of species richness and trait composition, but showed a significant change in species composition and functional diversity across the grazing gradient.Item Patterns of Bird Community Structure in Relation to Land-Use Driven Habitat Changes in the Arid Grasslands of Thar Desert(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2019) Kher, Varun; Dutta, Sutirtha; Uniyal, V.P.; Page, Navendu V.The Indian Thar desert has seen a massive loss of grassland habitat in the last few decades. The main driver of this habitat loss has been the large-scale change in landuse from pastoralism to agriculture, leading to expansion of cultivated land over grasslands. This expansion, further compounded by a simultaneous rise in livestock population has drastically increased grazing pressure on the remaining rangelands. To complicate things further, irrigation schemes (notably the Indira Gandhi Canal) have led to intensification of agriculture in many areas. Protected area network in this landscape is minimal and ineffective, making the multiple-use agro-pastoral landscapes very important for conservation of wildlife. The largest protected area in the landscape – the “DNP WLS” – is also a multiple-use landscape and home to more than 50k people whose livelihood is tied to the federal mandate of conservation in the sanctuary. 1. Understanding the impact of land use change on native biodiversity is thus very important for conservation of biodiversity in this critical habitat. In this context, my study tries to find effects of land-use change on community structure of birds in the arid grassland of Jaisalmer district in the Thar Desert. 2. Understanding ecology or distribution and abundance of species is incomplete without holistically understanding the patterns and processes occurring at the community level. To this end, I explored the patterns of bird community structure in the Thar Desert and tried to understand how these properties change with land-use driven habitat change, by comparing fundamental properties of biological communities like species richness, abundance and composition. Additionally, I tried to find out potential habitat correlates of these properties, so as to shed some light on the processes that might be driving community assembly in response to land-use change. 3. Bird community structure: My results indicate that local-scale species richness,abundance and composition did not differ significantly between protected grasslands, rangelands and extensive rain-fed croplands, during either of the seasons. However, intensive irrigated croplands had a notably different community structure with higher species richness and abundance, during both winter and summer. The change is community structure of intensive croplands was influenced by the change in native species along with ingression of newly colonised species. Most of the newly colonised species were restricted to areas with intensive agriculture where their survival was potentially facilitated by the new microhabitats created by irrigation and associated changes (Rahmani & Soni, 1997). 4. Regional species pool: Intensive agriculture increased the overall species of birds in the region by sustaining newly colonised bird species; while the number of native species in this pool was only marginally lower than protected grasslands and comparable to all the other land-uses in both the seasons. Considering both the seasons together, protected grasslands had the highest naïve and estimated number of native species while the naïve and estimated number of native species in other three land-uses – Rangelands, extensive croplands and intensive croplands – was only marginally lower. This signifies that most species found in the region can use the entire gradient of land-use types at their current levels of intensification. Although this result by itself does not indicate that, all land-use types can sustain all the native species. 5. Seasonality of patterns: In winter, protected grasslands, rangelands and extensive croplands had similar bird communities, which together were significantly different from the communities in intensive croplands. The same pattern repeated in summer, but the magnitude of difference between bird communities in intensive agriculture and other land-uses was much lower. This pattern was correlated to the pattern shown by vegetation structure of intensive agriculture, which also became more similar to other land-uses after harvesting of crops in the summer. This potentially suggests that bird communities are influenced by vegetation structure and areas with similar vegetation structure would have similar bird communities. 6. Habitat correlates of species richness and bird community composition: In both the seasons, species richness was positively associated with the foliar volume of woody vegetation and negatively associated with forb volume (which in turn was negatively correlated with grass volume). During winter, species richness was positively related to crop volume and during summer, with compositional diversity of vegetation. Community composition like richness was influenced significantly by woody plant foliar biomass in both the seasons. Crop volume also had a significant influence on bird communities during both winter and summer, whereas grass volume was significantly influential only in winters. Conservation implications: This study corroborates many others in indicating that low-impact land-uses are important secondary habitats for conservation of grassland species (Dutta & Jhala, 2014; Wright, Lake, & Dolman, 2012). The inferences further support the commonly advocated approach of conserving grasslands at a landscape scale by strategically placing them as mosaics of low-impact agro pastoral land-use with small protected areas embedded within them (Dutta & Jhala, 2014; Dutta, Rahmani, & Jhala, 2011; Singh et al., 2006).Item Factors Influencing Small Carnivore Community Structure in Chandoli National Park Northern Western Ghats(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2019) Lad, Himanshu C.; Gopi, G.V.The current study was conducted on small carnivores in Chandoli National Park of Sahyadri Tiger Reserve from December 2018 to April 2019. The main objectives was to understand drivers of spatial distribution and temporal variation amongst sympatric small carnivores present in the study area. This study provided information on local small carnivore distribution, dietary pattern of palm civet and time activity patterns of small carnivores in Chandoli national parkItem Responses Shown by Bird Communities to Teak Palatations in Sagar Forest Division, Karnataka(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2009) Barve, Sahas S.; Mohan, D.; Qureshi, QamarThis study was aimed at discerning the responses shown by bird communities to teak plantations of various age classes in Sagar Forest Division, Karnataka within Latitude 13° 36' and 14° 38' North 74° Longitude 38' and 75° 32'East Latitude. Birds were sampled using line transects in three habitat strata, natural plantations, mature teak plantations and young teak plantations. Density, diversity and community similarity were the chief ecological responses that were quantified to bring out differences in the usage of forest plantations by native bird fauna. Habitat (vegetation) correlates, both structural and floristic were quantified to establish the reasons for differences. The sampling period was from December 2008 to April 2009. This period was divided into two seasons, winter and summer. A total of 9 transects were laid, marked and sampled at least 4 times per season. Birds were divided into three feeding guilds and three habitat guilds for analysis. The overall density of birds across the three strata was found to be higher in summer than in winter. However a guild level analysis showed that in winter while insectivorous birds were most abundant in natural forest with decreasing density towards young plantations (F (6.241) , p< 0.05). There was no difference in their density in summer. Phytophagous birds showed the exact reverse trend. Density of this guild was higher in young plantations than natural forests and mature plantations in winter and summer (F(S.689), p< 0.05), (F (14.302), p< 0.01) respectively. Overall diversity of birds showed a trend of decreasing species richness from natural forests to young plantations in both seasons. However this difference was almost non existent in summer at the guild level. The abundance of birds belonging to evergreen and moist deciduous forests shows a consistent· rise in abundance from winter to summer in all the three strata. There is also evidence that there is ingression of individuals of species that were common to both seasons possibly for nesting. The overall community similarity is quite high between the three strata and it increases from winter to summer. Bird diversity was found to be affected by the vertical spread of vegetation and tree height heterogeneity (R=0.871, p